Like A Ten Cent Soda
by tbirdatmywindow
Summary: Patsy and Delia make a bet. Years later, it is time to collect.
"It won't always be like this, Pats. Someday…" Delia trailed off, unsure of what exactly would happen someday.

They were alone in Patsy and Trixie's room, having just seen a giddy Barbara off for a date with Tom. The two of them had watched fondly as Barbara sashayed in and out of the room, modeling different outfits and anxiously debating the merits of each one. They had each assured her countless times that Tom would think she looked beautiful if she went out in a gunnysack. Patsy had carefully applied a light shade of lipstick to her lips, begging her to stay still and stop chattering. It was just as she was leaving that the mood fell flat.

"I can't wait until we find some chaps for you girls, and then we can all go out together! Won't that be marvelous?" A cloud passed over Patsy's face, while Delia managed a tight smile.

"Sure Barbara, it'll be wonderful."

Now, Patsy sighed in response to Delia's hopeful promise.

"It's true we might get a flat someday, but we'll never be able to have what Barbara and Tom have. We'll never be able to hold hands on the street the way they do, or kiss goodnight after a date. And we'll certainly never be able to tell anyone about us."

"I believe we'll be able to do all of that one day, and more. It's 1962, Pats! Things are changing. In fact… how would you like to make a little wager, Miss Mount?" Delia fought back a smile, and Patsy couldn't help but grin at the resulting face.

"I'm waiting," she encouraged Delia.

"I will bet you that, one day, the two of us will be married. Properly married. With a certificate to prove it."

This was something that seemed beyond even Delia's boundless capacity for optimism. "Deels, you can't possibly believe that could ever happen."

"I do, though. And I know exactly what I'd like if- _when_ \- I win."

Patsy's eyebrows arched suggestively, despite herself.

"And what would that be?"

"A nice, cold bottle of Tizer."

"Delia!"

"What? You know I can't resist a soft drink! And, to be honest, I'm rather sure that anything else I might want…" She ran her fingers softly down Patsy's arm and looked into her eyes. Patsy leaned forward slightly. "…I could get for myself quite easily." She smiled, pleased with herself, and leaned back to sit cross-legged on the bed.

"Deels! You utter tease!"

"Don't look so wounded, Pats. You can feel free to pick whatever you'd like if you win, too. You won't, though, so don't get excited."

Patsy took a swipe at her girlfriend, and the women fell into each other, laughing.

* * *

Patsy and Delia sat with hands clasped, watching the television anxiously, waiting for the Supreme Court's decision on Obergefell v. Hodges. When the decision was announced, and they watched the crowds whoop in Washington, D.C. and New York, the women finally breathed sighs of relief.

"Not ghosts," Patsy said thickly, squeezing Delia's hand.

"Pats," Delia said gently, "We haven't been ghosts in a long while."

Their phone rang all day, friends from back in England calling with well wishes, and friends in the States dropping by at random to share their excitement.

The best call came from their old friend, Trixie.

"Makes you wish the Sisters were still here to see this," Trixie said a bit wistfully.

"Mm," Patsy hummed noncommittally.

"I suppose I should say I'm just glad _I'm_ still here to see it."

"Yes," Patsy agreed. "Must've been all of those Keep Fit classes. Tell me, Trix, do you still wear a leotard?"

"Nurse Mount, you're perfectly beastly! I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to pull one off these days, especially since I've been relegated to the chair exercises."

"Listen, Trixie, I have a favor to ask you…"

* * *

Patsy had been wondering how exactly she would procure a bottle of Tizer from across the ocean. When they'd first moved to the States, the hardest adjustment had been missing all the midnight snacks they'd enjoyed at Nonnatus- Bournvita, Mrs. B's cakes. Luckily, whiskey was sold the world over. Tizer was not as easy to find. But Trixie had come through, and Patsy had been refrigerating the bottle the past two hours while Delia had been at physical therapy.

Now she held it, cold and sweating, in her equally sweaty hand, waiting for Delia to turn the knob and come inside.

"Deels," she called when she heard the door open, "Would you come in here for a moment?"

Delia dropped her keys on the counter and made her way into the living room.

"What is it, Pats?"

Patsy took a deep breath to steady herself and walked over to where Delia stood.

"Delia, from the moment we met, you have made me believe in impossible things. That two women could love one another, just as well, better even, than a man and a woman. That I wasn't too broken to let someone in. That I might have found someone who would never leave my side. There was one impossible thing that I couldn't believe, though, so you believed it for me. And, like always, you were right. So," she brought the bottle of Tizer from behind her back and extended it to Delia, who had tears in her eyes, "will you…. For God's sakes, will you finally marry me, Delia Busby?"

"Yes, you fool, yes!" She gathered Patsy up in her arms and, through tears, added, "I told you I would win."

"Yes, dear, you did," Patsy smiled.

At the altar, the brides took each other in, carefully, gratefully. It had taken a long time for them to reach this day, but they made it.

Delia, self-consciously bringing a hand up to check her hair, imagined herself back at Nonnatus House, looking herself in the mirror with a veil over her hair. It was the first time she'd ever worn one, but she'd known, instinctively, that it wouldn't be the last. She looked at Patsy now with all the wonder of those heady younger days, their futures full of promise and hope.

Patsy, beside her, again felt herself to be that young woman confidently striding through doorways in the East End of London, sure that whatever awaited her within, she would be its equal.

* * *

Note: A reviewer brought up the excellent point: why wouldn't Patsy and Delia have just traveled home to England to marry, since it was legalized there first? The real answer for this is that I thought it would be sweet for there to be a bit more effort involved to get the Tizer, being across the ocean. I don't really think they would've moved to America anyway. But this is my first story- I thought about it in the car and I decided to take the plunge on it even if it clearly isn't perfect! And I guess the story answer to the same question is that they are hella old at this point, and traveling across the ocean isn't feasible for them. Thanks for reading.


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